The black-and-white issue of winning and losing is not something most service members dwell on. Instead, the conversation among military professionals is more nuanced.
“What actually comes up is more the question of what our goal in Afghanistan was, not so much, ‘Did we win or did we lose?’ or ‘Should we stay or should we be pulling out?’ The question I hear is about what we as a nation intended to accomplish,” Lacy said.
.. “Initially, our goal was to go find bin Laden, that was the impression that most of us had. We accomplished our mission. But then all the other stuff? How much do we need to be responsible for another nation? If we are somehow responsible, then for how long are we responsible?” Lacy said.
.. Yet most troops disagree with those defense experts on the value of staying in Afghanistan. In the Military Times survey, only 28 percent of active-duty troops say the U.S. should maintain a troop presence there beyond 2016.
.. Bradshaw, the Navy corpsman who deployed several times to both Iraq and Afghanistan, said he was frustrated by the conservative rules of engagement imposed due to concerns about civilian casualties.”At one point, the Marines couldn’t shoot unless they were shot at first. That added to the body count, and I’m the one that has to go try and patch them up,” Bradshaw said. “I’m not sure who was to blame, whether it was the military leadership or politicians that tied their hands, but I lost a lot of Marines because of the ROE.”
.. About 70 percent of the active-duty troops surveyed said the U.S. should not send a significant number of ground troops to Iraq to support Baghdad’s fight against the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
.. “I think it’s good that the war [in Afghanistan] is winding down,” Fox said. “As always, the Marines are going to do what they’re told to do to the best of their ability. If it so happens that there isn’t really a military solution to a particular problem, that’s not on us. And that pretty much sums up Iraq and Afghanistan.”